The Holidays 2012

Christmas 2012 and New Year's 2013 are now behind us. It was a good holiday season for me. For the first time in several years I felt well, very well. I enjoyed the anticipation, I enjoyed Christmas night lying in bed next to Terry, nice and warm while inches from my feet sleet pelted the window and wind shook the house. I enjoyed the time between Christmas and New Year's as we puttered with little chores, went to Jonesboro and did some shopping, and sat in our "sitting area" upstairs in the morning drinking coffee and playing holiday music on the stereo. It was a good time.

I saved a few shopping items for December 24th. I always like to do that as it is my birthday and I go and get a sense of the season. My Dad would pick up a big box of candy usually from a drugstore as a house gift. My mother and I had our favorites as did dad and over the week or so of the holiday season we would finish that box. I decided to resurrect that tradition so I went to Walgreen's and bought a Whitman Sampler. It did not seem very big. It was on a candy display shelf and not out on a display on the corner with decorations around it. It was kind of blah. I purchased the candy anyway. It sat on the counter, unopened until the day after Christmas. That is when Terry brought it upstairs to our sitting area and we enjoyed the candy for a number of days as a treat with our morning coffee. It was nice. I shall continue that tradition.

Our daughter Jessi's car is broken down and not safe to drive long distances. So on the Sunday before Christmas we asked Tracy and her boyfriend Zeb to take our van and go get Jessi and granddaughter Presley so they would be with us for Christmas. It was a kind of Christmas Carol type event and made me feel good.

The Moose Chef is the first Christmas decoration that comes out of the box. Usually about Thanksgiving. It is a ceramic incense burner made up like a moose with a chef's hat. It has a cookie sheet with cookies and the smoke from the incense comes up through a hole in the sheet making the cookies look like they are fresh from the oven. It was given to us years ago by my daughter Jenny, as I call her Tootermoose and we have found special ornaments or decorations with moose on them that we send each other.

I have a tradition that is now three years old. I order a nice box of sausage and meats from a small shop in Northern Wisconsin. Both daughters, Kristi and Jenny look forward to the arrival just before Christmas and the supply of cinnamon apple bacon, sausages, cheeses and such like. They both are difficult to buy for as they have most of the things a person needs and I don't like buying baubles. So this is nice, and I can replenish it every year. Besides food and the holiday's seem to have a special link and it is just fun.

This Christmas I had a lot to be grateful for and think about. A wife who is dedicated to my welfare and is such a caring person. Children who love me and I enjoy watching them mature and become such good, contributing members of our society. A home that is warm and safe. Dogs and a cat that share our life with us and add so much in the way of love and comic relief. Yes, this is a good life and I hope I have many more, I do not wish the last few years on anybody.